Need help. Primary HDD drive crashed!

Alex34

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Hello all. Need help with my laptop and I'm not computer savvy at all.|

It has two HHD drives, 500GB each, the primary one in SATA port 1 has crashed when it fell and the laptop no longer recognises it. The second hard drive in SATA port 2 is blank, I know it should have been used as back up but I never did. I still have the original operating/recovery CD that came with the laptop, can I download the recovery CD onto the second hard drive and start using the laptop again or do I need to take it to a technician to be repaired?

If I can use the second hard drive, how exactly do I go about downloading the recovery CD to it?

Many thanks for any help!
 
put the hdd into slot 1 and reinstall operating system. also run a full check on the drive, it may be damaged too

take hdd 1 to a recovery specialist if you want to attempt to get your data back
 
What model is the laptop and what operating system is it?
 
The second drive inside the laptop was intended for extra storage space. It'd wouldn't be much of a backup as it'd always be in the same place and going through the same things as the first copy of the data.

I wouldn't bother with a recovery disk unless the laptop is unusual enough that you want the manufacturer software on there and it isn't just the usual junkware.

You can grab an up to date installer for Windows 8.1 or 10 using the media creation tool on Microsoft's website.

Once you've got that you want to boot from the USB stick or DVD you've put the installer on and follow the instructions to install it to the second drive.

Depending on the current BIOS settings and the exact nature of the drive failure it may happily boot straight from the second drive or you may need to adjust the boot order to remove the first drive (or put the second one above the first).

You probably won't need to physically swap them over, although laptops with two drives aren't common so I don't have any personal experience.
 
Apologies for the delay... it's been a long day.

The model is Samsung NP700Z5C with originally Windows 7 upgraded to Windows 10. It's an old laptop and the original 1TB drive crashed while under warranty some years back and was replaced with two 500GB drives, or at least that's what they told me. Two drives were listed whenever I opened the window for "This PC".

When it originally crashed, the setup page when booting listed the first drive as corrupted. Now it is listed as unavailable or something like that. I tried to install the recovery disk last night with a youtube tutorial but when I get to the point where it asks which drive to install it on, one drive shows 0MB and the other shows 7.5MB and Windows won't install on either.

There was a point during the install where I was asked to remove the recovery disk and restart the laptop, then re-insert the disk but I couldn't so I kept on with the install. The laptop has no eject button for the disk drive and the only way I know how to eject it is via right clicking on the drive on Windows.
 
one drive shows 0MB and the other shows 7.5MB

Almost certainly both drives have been damaged during the drop and you can either just replace the primary drive or both - here is a dissassembly video


You can then reinstall windows 10 as Endless has eluded to - here is a link to Windows 10 media creation tool
Download Windows 10 media creation tool
If all this seems beyond you then take it to a local workshop for the work to be done
 
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Thanks DavidG1.

I was suspecting it might be damaged as well.

If I replace them with SSD drives, will any 2.5 drive work?
 
Any 2.5” SSD should be a drop in replacement. You can go cheap - Adata are good value - or expensive Samsung Evo. However unless your SATA interface is SATA III (unlikely in a 10 year old laptop) there is no point in getting the fastest SSDs
HTH

David
 
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Looking up the model is appears to be a fairly thin and light model and it'd be unusual for a machine like that to support two drives. I only see one in the video David linked and there's no obvious sign of an mSATA or M.2 connector for an SSD.

So I doubt we're talking about two physical drives here, but a single drive partitioned into two logical drives.

If that's the case then it's no surprise that neither work. The good news is that if Windows setup is detecting the disk then it probably hasn't had a head crash and if you're lucky may simply need reformatting.

In that situation once you get to that part of setup there should be an advanced options or some other way to modify the disk's partitions. If you simply delete all of the partitions on the disk and leave it as unformatted space then the Windows installer should be happy to install to that and will format it automatically.

Obviously this will make it harder to recover any data you don't have backed up so don't do this if you plan to send the disk to a professional recovery company.

p.s. The eject symbol appears to be marked on the Delete key so Fn + Delete should eject the drive. Generally windows setup just asks you to eject the disk so the computer boots as normal rather than trying to run the setup disk again.
 
Thanks for that Endless.

Think I will replace the drive. I've found youtube videos where the original drive was replaced with SSD. Will also have the old one sent out for recovery.
 
HDD Failures appear to be repeated with this Computer... so I'm wondering if the replacement was mishandled by the supplier, prior to posting? ( Although any posting is likely to be subject to shocks... just hope they provide good packing ).

+Using SSD's should remove many mechanical issues.
Also, make sure your data is backed-up to an external drive so if the PC fails, your work, Photos, etc. remain.
If you aren't experience in PC-construction - better leave it to the experts.

Hope that helps.
 
Well the replacement was done at the Samsung repair centre in London in 2014. I went personally to pick it up and it has lasted almost 6 years without any issues until I dropped it. Saying that though, the original HDD died on its own. I believe the HDDs are Toshiba branded ones.

The replacement this time will be a Samsung EVO SSD and I'll will be purchasing an external drive for backups. I'm taking it to a professional as he is going to trying and recover the data on the crashed drive as well. May upgrade the RAM from 8GB to 12GB while I'm at it.

Thanks.
 
That's a pretty old machine now so it's worth looking at alternates before you start spending a hundred quid or more on it. It may be that a second half machine half the age would be a better bet.
 
Will also have the old one sent out for recovery.

Before spending money on recovery costs you could look at it yourself first using something like this -
USB to SATA adaptor

This will allow you to connect the HDD to your laptop and browse it for files so long as the drive isn't physically damaged.(after you have reinstalled the OS etc obviously). If you don't have any luck there then take it to a specialist.)
 
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